#609: This 1's 4 Jeff!

My old buddy Jeff Mann pops up quite a lot in this blog. He was my best friend in highschool, & what 1st brot us 2gether was a shared fascination with The Beatles & STAR TREK.
That, & the fact that he was drawing hilarious cartoons 4 the Meridian High School newspaper, the WARWHOOP, & I was jealous cos as a sophomore I wasn't allowed 2 B on the newspaper staff. But Jeff was 1 of the folks behind-the-scenes who got me on2 the paper as a junior. So he sorta set me on the path 2 where I am now.
But at 1st there was music & STAR TREK. Long B4 I knew whether I could write 4 a school newspaper, I was pouring-out little-known musical facts about the Beatles 4 Jeff, & he was reading 2 me big slugs of Stephen Whitfield's classic behind-the-scenes book THE MAKING OF STAR TREK.
The rest of the time I was listening-2 the radio in my bedroom 24/7, & Jeff was at home drawing HILARIOUS comedy covers 4 Beatles albums nobody ever heard of, complete with all-new comedy song-titles. When he was a little more serious, Jeff could draw great rock-star portraits (usually John, Paul, George & Ringo, of course) in pen&ink, too....
I think the 1st time I ever went "out" on a schoolnite it was with Jeff, scrunched into the passenger's seat of his little Mercury Capri -- & later in2 the passenger's seat of his even-smaller Austin Healey (I think). Ghod knows how my long legs fit in2 that car -- my knees were probly in my face.
But Jeff had no trouble fitting in. At 5-foot-10, maybe 130 pounds max, thin as a stick, he LOOKED like a walking cartoon, like a drawing he might've come up with himself -- like a younger, skinnier Paul McCartney. He had no trouble contorting his body out the driver's-side window of the car to shout "ROCK AND ROLL!!!" at passing cars & passers-by as we cruised down Nampa-Caldwell Blvd., the sounds of The Beatles or Wings or Elton John's "Love Lies Bleeding" blaring out the car's windows.... We musta scared the CRAP outta the old folks who were out on the blvd. those nites, wondering what kind of young heathens were blotting the landscape of Southwestern Idaho....
Jeff put practically The Beatles' entire catalog on tape as soundtrack music 4 driving 2&from school or 4 those nites of cruising ... later 2 B followed by McCartney solo or with Wings, & then by the Elton catalog. There's whole albums by Wings & Elton that I've never owned, couldn't even identify, but I've heard them all the way thru, many times over, thanx 2 Jeff. I don't think I've ever heard all of McCartney's 1st solo album or RAM by my own choice -- but I know I've heard them while hanging out laughing & being silly with Jeff, & the loony circumstances just made the music sound stranger. & I remember "Smile Away" & "Monkberry Moon Delight" & "Uncle Albert" ... & something haunting off the 1st album that I thot was called "Dear Boy" but now is apparently lost in memory....
We tripped over other stuff later. When Kansas's LEFTOVERTURE came out we both thot the lyrics were overblown & stupid, & we plotted 2 write our own silly concept album with outrageous lyrics -- we even briefly talked about PERFORMING it, even tho I've NEVER been able 2 play ANY musical instrument.
On the way to the Newspaper Awards Banquet at the end of my junior year, Jeff turned me on 2 Queen's A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, & suddenly we had another classic 2 B in awe of. I'd already heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" by then -- but I wasn't ready 4 the hysterical "Death on Two Legs" or the gorgeous science-fiction folk-song "'39" or the stunning "Prophet's Song."
There was more later -- Jeff & I shared an apartment with our buddy Don Vincent 4 a year, & mosta the music Jeff picked up on during that year Don & I later adopted as Good Stuff -- Journey's INFINITY, REO Speedwagon's YOU CAN TUNE A PIANO BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FISH, most Led Zeppelin albums, maybe a little bit of AC/DC -- jeez, even a little Ted Nugent.
Jeff never hadta convince us about early Elton John. But even 30 years later I was hearing stuff on GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD that I'd never been able 2 hear the 1st time around. I already loved "Love Lies Bleeding," "Grey Seal," "The Ballad of Danny Bailey," "Candle in the Wind," "All the Girls Love Alice" ... but it took me YEARS 2 notice "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock and Roll)," "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," "Roy Rogers," "Harmony," ... & possibly Elton's greatest song ever -- yes, "Social Disease."
It wasn't just the music, tho. When Jeff & I 1st started noticing girls, 1st started going out, just started developing a "social life," we'd call each other now&then 2 try 2 figure out What It All Meant. & pretty much neither of us had a clue. But it was fun 2 try 2 figure it out, years B4 either of us would get married....
+ Jeff gave me 1 of the greatest Christmas gifts ever. After I wracked my brain 2 try 2 find something more impressive 2 give him 4 Xmas than WINGS OVER AMERICA, he trumped me big-time. I opened up the box & inside was a bright orange T-shirt with the bold print saying JEFF MANN FAN CLUB -- OFFICIAL MEMBER.
And I laughed like an idiot, til I had tears rolling down my face, & I wore it 2 school the 1st chance I got. It was just freaking perfect. Everybody knew we hung-out 2gether constantly. It never even occurred 2 me that some1 might've thot something else.... Anyway, nobody ever said anything....
I do a lotta Nostalgia here, & this is another round. But this Xmas Jeff is 800 miles away, & is probly starting 2 wonder if I'm EVER gonna get back 2 him with a long-overdue phonecall, so....